Rending the Veil
by grisabele
Summary: Seven years after the events of On This Side, Amara answers her door...and wakes up in Nosgoth. Everything has changed, and her old allies are gone. Can she get to the bottom of all this, or will she feed The Wheel?
1. I

**A/N: I tried and tried and tried to update this, but every time I did, I hit a brick wall. So I decided to just rewrite the whole thing, because there were plot and character changes that developed while I was brainstorming, anyway. **

**I've been working on this story for ten years. It's time to wrap it up and finish. You can read the other two stories, _Transversed _and _On This Side _first, if you like. I'll be making small changes here and there to those stories, although I'm not sure I'll ever do full-fledged rewrites. Cleaning and fixing plotholes, maybe, but nothing major. Thanks to The Karnstein for allowing me to use her character, Holly Angela.**

**Thanks to all my fans and friends for your support. I loves you guys!**

_My name is Amara Dolan. I'm twenty-seven years old. After college, I moved to California and joined the local police force's Cold Case squad. My best friends in the world, Ice Albers and Rupali Gray, are gone. Ice went to Nosgoth with Raziel, and Rupali disappeared in 2012. It's 2015 now. I have no one to rely on now but myself._

The last thing I remembered was answering the door. Everything before and after that is a blur.

My head ached terribly. I didn't want to open my eyes. I knew I was laying on my side, on a cold floor that felt like it might have been concrete. For a moment, I wondered if a serial killer had kidnapped me. That made sense. I answered the door, and he drugged me.

Without opening my eyes, I tried moving my arms, to check and see if I was restrained. A sigh of relief escaped my lips when my arm moved freely. I tried moving my legs next and almost smiled when they moved freely.

_Okay. I'm not tied up. Maybe I should try standing up. _

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I inhaled sharply when I saw the room I was in.

This was no serial killer's basement bunker. The architecture here was clearly medieval. The walls and floor were made of gray stone, and flying buttresses held up the vaulted ceiling.

My heart started pounding as I climbed to my feet. When I was fifteen, something very similar happened to me...and to my best friend Ice. One minute, we'd been in her bedroom, having a sleepover, and the next, we were in a parallel world called Nosgoth. There had been lots of medieval architecture like this. There had been vampires in Nosgoth, too. I had fallen deeply in love with one of them when he had wandered into my world, just before I turned twenty-one. His name was Dumah. I still wore the pendant he gave me, a silver amethyst point on a thin silver chain.

But Dumah, Ice, and Dumah's brothers Raziel and Rahab had returned to Nosgoth, along with Kain, the vampire ruler of Nosgoth.

Kain's voice echoed in my mind as I remembered the day they left.

_We were all in the living room of the house I was renting then, while Kain was making plans to return to Nosgoth. He had instructed Ice to drive to the place where a return was possible._

_"What about Amara?" Rahab asked._

_"She stays."_

_Dumah's face fell. "Sire-"_

_"She stays," Kain repeated._

_"Why?" I said before I could stop myself._

_Kain slowly turned to me, regarding me with his gold eyes in the same way that he might have looked at a small child who'd asked him a foolish question._

_"You belong here. For now," he said coolly._

_"But..Dumah..." I finished weakly._

_The corners of Kain's mouth briefly turned up. "Accompany us, then. Say your goodbyes. But you must stay on your side of the Veil."_

If I didn't belong in Nosgoth, then what the hell was I doing back? More importantly, what happened to Ice? Would Dumah remember me? Time passed more quickly in Nosgoth than it did on Earth. Seven years for me would be seven hundred for Nosgoth.

I looked down. I had been getting ready for work when I had answered the door. I was wearing black dress slacks and a white button-down blouse with ruffles on the front. My shoes were kind of impractical, being black, medium-heeled boots. My blonde hair was loose and fell past my shoulders. I had meant to put it up.

I reached down, to where my holster would be, and remembered that I hadn't put my gun holster on before I answered the door. A shame. My gun would have been pretty useful here.

_Okay. So. How do I get out of this? _I scanned the room quickly. It was small, and except for a few crates in the corner, it was empty. There was a heavy, wooden door against the far wall. I slowly moved toward it. It was probably locked, but it couldn't hurt to try.

The first time I pushed the door, it didn't budge, but the second time, I threw all of my weight against the door, and it creaked open. I took a few cautious steps through the doorway and peeked out. There was a hallway immediately in front of me. I looked to the left, and then to the right. Wherever I was, it was oddly still. There was not a soul, human or vampire, moving.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It wasn't normal for a building in Nosgoth to be so still. The place had teemed with activity when I had been there last.

_That was twelve years ago. And it was twelve hundred years ago in Nosgoth time, remember? A lot can change in twelve hundred years. _

Maybe whichever vampire had owned this castle had abandoned it, choosing to keep court elsewhere. That was logical.

I stepped completely out into the hallway and looked again. I reached for the pendant Dumah had given me and squeezed it.

_Dumah. Where are you? Find me, please find me._

I felt nothing, not the strange sense I felt when I knew the pendant was calling Dumah, just..nothing.

Had something happened to him?

For some reason, I felt a strong pull to go right. Maybe that was his way of bringing me to him. Yes. That was it.

I started down the hallway and slowly walked down, pausing every few moments to listen for footsteps. I had no way of knowing where I was or if the place was actually abandoned, after all.

Voices echoed down the hall. It sounded like two women, and they were coming toward me. My heart started racing. There was a huge window nearby that was covered with a large tapestry. If I could get to the window in time, I could hide behind the tapestry.

_No time to think. _I quickly hid myself behind the tapestry and stood stock still as the women moved past. The tapestry was heavy and smelled of years of smoke from torches. It was stifling behind it, but I dared not move.

"Lachesis, what of that girl that Lord Kain brought here?" asked one of the women.

I desperately wanted to peek around and see who these women were, but I knew better. If they were talking about me, and Kain really _had _brought me here, then they could. not. find. me.

"I suspect we will prepare her as we did the others." This woman sounded a little older. Her voice was sharp, cutting the air like a whip.

"Lord Kain warned Lord Vorador and the Priestess that she could be dangerous. She can't be that dangerous, though. She hasn't awakened yet." The younger-sounding woman seemed confident here.

"Even not awakened, she still has power..."

Their voices faded as they walked further down the hallway. I waited until the sound of their footsteps faded completely, and then carefully climbed out from behind the tapestry.

So Kain brought me to Nosgoth. How and why were my next questions.

The hallway branched after a few feet and I chose to go right again. This hallway was darker and less well-maintained than the others. Those vampire worshippers, if that's what those women were, must have only come here out of necessity. At the end of the hall, there was a set of elegant double doors. I smiled. If these were Kain's private chambers, I was going to do a little poking around. Maybe I'd find out what he wanted from me.

I slowly took hold of the handle on one of the doors and pulled. To my surprise, it easily opened.

The room was circular, and quite large. It reminded me of the inner sanctum of a medieval church. In the center of the room was a pure, white marble statue of Kain, standing in a regal pose. The statue was holding a stone version of the strange, wavy sword I'd seen him with the last time he came to Earth.

There were some strange runes on the base of the statue, but what surprised me most was that Kain had chosen to depict himself with feathered, angelic wings.

_What an ego, _I thought. I looked around the room and noticed that there were portraits painted on the walls. Eight of them.

The first portrait was of a young woman with very long, straight black hair that turned to red at the ends. She looked like she could have been Japanese. She, too, was depicted with feathered wings. A strange symbol was painted above her head. It looked like a hastily-written letter H.

My breath caught in my throat when I saw the portrait next to the one of the Japanese woman. The woman depicted here was strangely familiar to me, with her shock of curly blond hair. She looked older, in her late thirties, perhaps. Her eyes were closed and she was pouring what looked like liquid fire into a goblet of water. The portrait here strongly resembled the _Temperance _Tarot card. This woman, too, had feathered wings. The symbol above her head reminded me of a bird's wing. I realized then that the reason she looked so familiar to me is because she looked exactly like the subject of my most recent case. Holly Angela. Vanished in 1967. Some new evidence had come up in her case. But why would a portrait of Holly Angela exist in Nosgoth?

I scanned the other portraits, finding one of a demonic-looking woman with batlike wings whose symbol looked like a pair of crossed swords.

I recognized another portrait. The woman in the painting had dark skin and long, curly black hair. She was dressed in a simple green dress, but I knew her face.

_Rupali. _The artist had chosen to depict her standing with one hand behind her back and the other raised to her face. She wore an expression of absolute calm, and the artist had given her hawk's wings. The symbol above her head looked like an unfinished triangle.

What did this mean? Any of it? What game was Kain playing? Had he meant for me to find this room?

I turned to look at the statue of Kain again, and I noticed that there was a portrait behind it that I hadn't seen yet.

Curious, I walked behind the statue and looked up.

My blood froze in my veins.

Although the woman in the painting was wearing a long, orange dress, and although she had been depicted with black feathered wings and white hair, I recognized her face.

It was mine.


	2. II

I slowly stepped backward, but kept my eyes on the painting. Why would Kain have this? For that matter, why would he have portraits of Rupali and the missing woman from California?

What was he planning?

A door was placed next to the portrait of me. I wouldn't have even noticed it had it been closed. Clearly, it was intended to be hidden. The door was half-open, almost inviting me to explore further. I took a cautious step toward it. If I went in there, I might learn about whatever Kain was planning. But there might be something even more unsettling than just portraits of people I knew in there, too.

_Those women could come back. It would be a good place to hide. But what if there's a worse vampire than Kain in there? _

I decided to go in. My curiosity was piqued, and, anyway, I didn't want to spend any more time in this room. Not with those creepy portraits. So I opened the door and moved into the next room.

This room was smaller than the last one. There were eight rectangular boxes lining the walls, four on the left side of the room and four on the right. All of the boxes were covered with a red cloth, except for the last one on the right side. That one was uncovered. It was made of clear glass. I frowned. Was it a display case or something?

I walked over to the nearest covered box and yanked the cloth off.

To this day, I wish I hadn't. I had to clap my hands over my mouth to stifle my scream.

The same demonic woman I had seen on the mural in the other room was laying inside the glass box, with her three-fingered hands folded neatly across her stomach. She looked awful, with sallow grey skin and stringy black hair. Her bat-like wings were folded underneath her. She was wearing a simple white shift. Her face was the worst. Her nose was wide, almost piggy, and her ears were very large and pointed, almost bat-like. And yet, there were things about that face I recognized. The set of the jaw, the shape of the lips. The years that she had been away had been unkind, but her identity was unmistakable.

Ice. That woman was Ice. A sob rose in my chest. What had happened? How had it happened?

I couldn't stop the tears when they started. Had Kain killed her and kept her as part of a collection? Was this a trophy room?

And that empty glass coffin...was Kain planning the same fate for me?

All I could do was slump down against Ice's coffin and sob. I was completely powerless. Ice was gone. I knew that for certain.

But I still had Dumah's pendant. Even though my instinct had guided me to this room, and even though he wasn't there, I clutched it as tightly as I could and began willing him to come.

_Please, Dumah. Please come. _

"Please, Dumah, please..."

Nothing. As before, I didn't even feel the sensation that he'd heard me, as I had the other times I used the pendant.

Dumah was gone, too. Was he in this room, I wondered? He had once dreamed of being more powerful than Kain. Perhaps he had tried to mount a rebellion and failed. If that were the case, maybe his body was in this room, too. I stood up. I was going to tear every single cover off of those coffins, if it meant finding him.

"What are you doing here, outworlder?" hissed an unfamiliar, male voice.

I wheeled around to face him, and my heart sank.

He definitely wasn't human. Not with that green skin and those huge ears, and those spikes on his chin. He regarded me with golden eyes set in a catlike face. He wore a red waistcoat, with a white shirt and cravat underneath, and matching red pants. I couldn't help but notice his three-fingered hands. Was he a vampire?

"You don't belong here." His tone was firm.

"I-I..." What was I going to do? I didn't have any weapons. No way could I take this guy in hand-to-hand combat.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but I didn't wait to hear him out. I started running. I pushed past him and ran out the door, out through the creepy-mural room, and then back into the hallway.

There was no time to think about where to go. I ran blindly down the hallway ahead of me, until I found a doorway. I quickly opened it, then shut it behind me.

I couldn't tell if that vampire was chasing me. I didn't hear any footfalls.

I turned around to survey my surroundings. This was a small bedroom, with a cot and a bookshelf. A book lay open on a desk near the bed. Curious, I bent down and looked at it. It was written in a fancy script, but I could read it. How unusual. Most of the Nosgothic writing I'd seen was in runes.

_**History Lesson: Two thousand years ago, the vampire Janos Audron was murdered by the Sarafan and his chyld, the vampire Vorador, slaughtered six members of the Circle of Nine for revenge. What a brutal place this Nosgoth is.**_

_**History Lesson: Five hundred years later, Ariel, the Balance Guardian, was murdered and the Circle fell into corruption. Kain killed them all and took power for himself. The woman teaching me these lessons assures me that Kain did so to save Nosgoth, but I have seen what it looks like outside my window. It's like nuclear winter. All the trees are dead and the sun is blotted out. The only signs of life are the shambling creatures outside and the vampire worshippers in here.**_

_**I want to go home. **_

A chill ran down my spine as I read the words on the page. Who wrote this? Had some other person from Earth stumbled through what Kain called "a tear in the Veil"?

More importantly, how exactly was _I _going to get out of this mess? I couldn't wait around for Kain to show up, and I was pretty sure that other vampire with the green skin and big ears would kill me if he could catch me.

Something strange happened to me then. For the first time, I heard what someone might call a guiding voice. The voice of a God, perhaps.

"_**You know what Kain plans to do." **_The voice was male. It was a deep, ancient voice. Commanding. I looked around to see who had spoken, but I couldn't see anyone. I figured I was losing it, at least, until the voice spoke again.

"_**I can help you escape." **_There was nothing soothing about this voice or promise. It sounded more like whoever it was was _compelling me._

"Wh-what? How?" _Great, Dolan. You are talking to a disembodied voice. You have fallen off of the deep end._

"_**I can show you how to get to a place where Kain shall never find you."**_

That sounded pretty good to me. I knew it was pretty crazy, trusting a disembodied voice, but, hey, better a disembodied voice than a vampire who was probably going to kill me and display my body.

"Show me," I said. "Tell me what to do. Help me."

The voice was silent for a few moments. I bit my lip. Maybe I really was going crazy. Maybe there wasn't actually a voice.

"_**Kain's private chambers lay deep in the bowels of this keep. In his chambers, you shall find the means to your escape. You might say that it will...deliver you in time."**_

I nodded. "Uh...okay..." _That was cryptic and otherwise unhelpful. Thanks, Voice! _

"**_Listen carefully, Amara," _**said the Voice. **_"Follow my instructions to the letter, and you shall escape."_**

I never did stop and consider how Mr. Disembodied Voice Man knew my name. I probably should have.

* * *

_Vorador's punishment for leading his vampiric children in a revolt against Kain was to guard Kain's keep for all eternity, and to watch as, one by one, his offspring were pitted against the offspring of Kain's sons in battles to the death. Now he was alone. Really, he thought it fitting. It seemed as though Fate had conspired to force him to spend eternity alone, watching helplessly as everything he ever knew or loved either faded away or was ripped from him. His only satisfaction was that Kain's sons had gotten what was coming to them, starting with Raziel, who was easily the worst of them. Watching the other five devolve into the monstrous beasts that Vorador always knew they truly were was an even greater joy. _

_Now, in this keep, there was only himself, a small colony of vampire worshippers led by a Priestess that he had never actually seen, and sleeping outworlders that Kain had forced him to turn. Vorador didn't understand Kain's reasoning. Surely, Kain could have turned them. _

_Kain was seldom around anymore. Vorador was tempted to leave the keep and throw himself into the Abyss, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. _

_Before he departed the last time, Kain had promised to bring one more outworlder. Vorador and the Followers had been instructed to teach her about Nosgoth, and then she would be turned and put into stasis, just like the other seven. Kain had promised it would be easy, since she already spoke the Common Tongue and had wandered into Nosgoth through a tear in the Veil Between Worlds once before. _

_But it hadn't been easy. When Vorador had gone to the room Kain said he'd left her in, she was gone. He'd combed the entire keep, only to find her in the Inner Sanctum. She shouldn't have ever found it. She had seen the mural on the walls, seen her portrait, and seen the outworlders in their coffins. She had the wrong idea about it now, he was sure of it. _

Kain should know, _he thought. If I can reach him. _

_Vorador closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and sent a Whisper. If Kain were still in Nosgoth, he'd get it._

_A reply came almost immediately. _**"Vorador. Report."**

"**That girl you brought here discovered the Inner Sanctum."**

"**How did she find it?" **_Kain's tone was clipped. Vorador couldn't see the look on his face, but he suspected that Kain was quite displeased._

"**I do not know," **_Vorador admitted. _**"The doors should have been locked and there should have been Followers attending her. It was almost as if someone had arranged for the girl to awaken early and find the Inner Sanctum." **

_Kain didn't reply right away. Vorador knew he was probably seething. _

"**Where is she now, Vorador?"**

_Vorador sighed and shook his head. He wasn't looking forward to admitting that he had no clue where the girl had run off to. _**"I'm afraid I do not know."**

_A longer pause this time. Then Kain sent another Whisper. There was no mistaking the fury in his tone, contained though it was._

"**Find her, Vorador."**

* * *

Getting into the bottom level of the keep was surprisingly easy. Too easy, now that I look back. Surely, there should have been some vampire worshippers down there. But I was alone. I stopped, periodically, to listen for footfalls, voices, anything that would alert me to the presence of anyone else who might have been down there, but all was still.

I wondered if it had been a trap set for me by Kain.

The bottom level of the keep was a maze of stone columns and hallways. It seemed like I went in circles no matter what I did, and Mr. Disembodied Voice was quiet. Why wouldn't he give me more helpful advice, like "turn left here" or something? I was _so over _the cryptic, unhelpful bullshit.

I stopped when I passed the same statue the third or fourth time. There must have been something I wasn't getting, some passage that I had overlooked, but I couldn't find it. I slumped against one of the columns and groaned.

Echoing footfalls caught my attention. I wasn't alone. I stood up and leaned against the column, then slowly moved around it.

For the first time, I looked up. Just to my right was a set of stairs I hadn't noticed before. I carefully moved toward them, and then started climbing. Whoever else was down here was coming my way. I had to hurry.

I broke into a run when I hit the top of the stairs. There was a door just ahead of me. That must have led to Kain's chambers.

I flung it open and all but ran inside. All was still. The walls were lined with bookshelves that reached from floor to ceiling. Every one of them was stuffed full. There were a few display cases full of strange artifacts and sculptures. Plush red carpet gave way under my feet.

Once, this room might have been grand, but now a thick layer of dust covered everything, and the only light was from a single torch on the wall. I took a slow step toward one of the display cases. What on Earth was I supposed to do? If something in this room could help me, what was it?

A flash of gold near the bottom of the display case caught my eye. Frowning, I walked toward it.

It was a small thing, really. It looked a bit like one of the protractors I used to use in math classes, but made of a gold-colored metal and some kind of black enamel. It had hands, too, like a clock. Strange runes were written across it. There was a small dial on the end. I figured turning the dials would do something with the clock hands, but I didn't want to touch it if I didn't know what it was going to do.

_It wouldn't hurt just to try..._

The sound of wood slamming against stone shook me from whatever hold that strange object had on me. I quickly ducked behind a nearby chair, clutching the object tight.

"Come out from there, girl!"

I recognized the voice immediately. It was that vampire who had chased me earlier. The terrifying one with the green skin and huge ears.

He couldn't catch me. Of that, I was certain. I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled further into the room. I could hear him pacing, searching.

I crawled under a desk and held my breath. He was coming closer. He could see in the half-light far better than I could, and the way my heart was pounding, he'd be able to hear that, too.

If that thing I was holding could help me escape, now was the best time to try it, consequences be damned. I tried turning the dial, but to no avail.

_It's stuck! What do I do?_

I tried pulling on the dial next. It clicked softly, and the clock-hands on the object moved slightly. Now the dial should turn, and the clock-hands should move. I slowly turned the dial counter-clockwise.

When I looked up, my eyes met a pair of gold ones. I stifled my scream and scooted closer toward the edge of the desk. In a panic, I turned the dial even further counter-clockwise.

"Why don't you set that down and come with me?" The green-skinned vampire's tone indicated that it was not a request.

I shook my head. "N-no."

The vampire scowled and reached for me. In a panic, I pressed the dial on the object I was holding in.

Kain's chambers warped and bent around me, and then I was enveloped in a blinding white light. I had no idea what was going to happen to me. All I knew for sure was that I had not been caught, and Kain would not have another trophy.

When the light faded, I found myself still sitting, but...

I was outside. I was covered in snow, in fact, I had materialized in a snowdrift. To make matters worse, it was windy and snowing here, too. My work clothes weren't going to offer me any protection, not when I was wet, not with this freezing cold wind whipping around me.

"Where am I?" I said out loud. Maybe Mr. Disembodied Voice Man would hear me.

No one answered.

"Please, I don't know where I am."

The only reply I received was the whistling of the wind.

My stomach sank. I was safe from Kain, yes. But I was certain to die out here.


	3. III

Janos Audron had not fed in days, and the reserve he had on hand in the Aerie was running low. Too low. He stepped out onto his balcony and looked out below. A figure, distinctly female, wandered onto the ice. She walked slowly, and finally she simply collapsed in a heap where she stood.

A fierce hunger rose up in him. Here was easy prey, just outside his door!

Caution was in order here. It was quite convenient that she should appear here in winter, when the lake was frozen and so the Sarafan patrolled relentlessly. It could be a trap. No doubt some Sarafan lay in wait.

Janos thought, wistfully, of a time when hunting was unnecessary. Of a time when there were no Sarafan Priests to hound him and murder his children for the crime of existing. In those days, humans had willingly given their blood. In those days, humans and vampires were...friends. He had never had to completely kill anyone back then. The human rebellion changed all that.

It was unfortunate, but Janos had to guard the Reaver until the Messiah came. Faith alone would not sustain him.

His thoughts returned to the woman. He had to hurry if her blood was going to be fresh. Otherwise, he'd have to take her back to the Aerie and use her blood to fill his reserve.

Despite his reservations, Janos chose to swoop down on the fallen woman.

He landed softly and knelt in the snow beside her. She was dressed strangely, in a tight white shirt that buttoned down the front and a pair of black pants. And those boots...well, those would have been useless for long journeys across the mountains. Her flaxen hair was loose and spread out over the snow.

He'd never seen women dress that way, or, really, anyone else. Janos noticed she wore a pendant. A crystal point (looked like amethyst) suspended on a thin, silver chain. Maybe she was a noblewoman of some kind. Her skin was smooth enough, (almost) pale enough. But she was thin, so thin...Janos thought she might have been ill.

When he leaned close to her, gently pulled her into a kneeling position, his nose wrinkled at the unfamiliar smell. She postitively _stunk _of Elsewhere.

_From another country, perhaps. _

He carefully cradled her head with one large, cloven hand, and gently rested his other hand on her shoulder. Her pulse beat underneath his hands. Stronger than he expected. Still weak. Her throat lay bare and completely exposed to him.

Janos couldn't resist anymore. He sunk his fangs into the soft, yielding flesh of the woman's throat. She sighed softly as her head lolled back. Her blood was sweet, but...something tasted different. Wrong, almost.

He let the woman's blood sit in his mouth for a moment. Then his eyes widened. He spat out the blood and looked down at the woman with a sense of urgency.

The strange taste to her blood...at some point, that woman had consumed the blood of a vampire. Janos couldn't bring himself to drain her. Not when she was practically kin. He muttered a spell and quickly dragged a finger down her throat to stop the bleeding.

How had she come to consume the blood of a vampire? Furthermore, how had she not been turned by such an act?

He looked back down at the unconscious woman, took a deep breath, and slowly began probing her mind with his own.

_**Child, what is your name?**_

_**Amara...**_

A name. That was a good place to start. He started probing her recent memories...nothing of interest. Or, at least, nothing of interest involving vampires. Where ever Amara came from was an interesting world all its own. If he had the chance, he'd ask her about it.

He took a deep breath and started probing further back into her memories.

_In this memory, Amara was younger. Janos saw her in a dark alley. She approached a tall man with long dark hair that Janos immediately recognized as a vampire._

"_Let's go home," she said to the vampire. She took his hand and together they headed down the alley._

_A sound Janos wasn't familiar with cracked the air. Like rope snapping, he thought. _

_Amara collapsed. _

_Janos saw the vampire Amara had been with run the opposite way, then heard a man scream._

_After a few moments, the vampire returned, knelt next to Amara, and lifted her into his arms. Janos could tell she'd lost a lot of blood. _

_The vampire bit his wrist and pressed it to Amara's lips, urging her to drink. _

After that, Janos couldn't see any further. He tried to press further into Amara's memories. It was like running into a wall, though. As though she herself had put up a barrier.

Janos was not to be deterred, though. He tried again, only to be met by a psychic shockwave strong enough to physically knock him backward, into the snow.

He pulled himself back into a sitting position and looked down at Amara. Her blue eyes were opened wide, and though she didn't speak, he heard her thoughts clearly.

"_**Stay. Out. Of. My. Head."**_

Janos opened his mouth to speak, then paused as an arrow just missed his head. Men were shouting, and he heard another arrow fly past.

_Sarafan! _

He looked down at Amara. He couldn't leave her with them, could he? But there wasn't time to take her. The warrior-priests were coming closer.

Amara looked human. As long as no Mentalists tried to view her memories, the Sarafan wouldn't harm her.

Assuming this hadn't been a trap to begin with.

Janos took one last look at Amara as he began to teleport.

Better to leave her with her own kind.


	4. IV

I awoke in the middle of a conversation, a flurry of whispers. Male and female voices both.

"...fever," said a soft, female voice.

My whole body ached, but my neck was especially sore. I sighed and tried to move my head.

_Ugh, no. That hurts too much. _Instead, I let my head sink back into the pillow. Wait...pillow? Was I home? Had it all been some kind of weird dream?

"You shouldn't be surprised. Gods know how long that poor girl was out in that cold. And with the Audron..." A man's voice. Familiar somehow.

All of my hopes deflated. I wasn't home, then. But how did I get from that mountain path to wherever?

"And your men carried her here in those wet clothes for how many hours?" The woman's voice was accusing. "There were Blade-Brides at that camp. Surely you could have given her a change of clothes. It's no wonder she's sick. At least you had the sense to keep her near the fire until you could arrange transport to Uschtenheim."

"It's a wonder she isn't _dead, _Uli," another man retorted. "She should have bled out before we even got her to the encampment. Or died of frostbite."

"The Gods have their ways, Dumah," the woman replied. "Perhaps that necklace of hers is enchanted."

_Dumah? How?_

My eyes snapped open, only to be met with a blinding light. I winced and shut my eyes again.

"Slow down," said the woman. Her voice was gentle, almost maternal.

I tried opening my eyes again. Sunlight streamed through a simple glass window. The room itself was very old-fashioned. Simple. The walls were coated with a layer of white plaster and the floor was made of wooden boards. A rustic nightstand with a brass candle-holder was next to my bed. The candle was long burned down.

_How long have I been here?_

"Did you say something?" There was that woman's voice again. I tried to turn my head toward her, but found it too painful.

A chair scraped on the floor. "Here, let me help."

Metal clinked as one of the men moved toward me. Was he wearing armor?

"Not you, lech," the woman said, though her tone was teasing. She gently helped me move to a sitting position, and then had Rahab place the pillows behind me so that I could sit comfortably.

The woman called Uli was short, with soft, round features and full heart-shaped lips. Her skin was deeply-tanned and her long, wavy hair was black and shiny. She wore it down and it reached past her waist. Her brown eyes danced with curiosity. I noticed she was pregnant. Six months along, I figured. She wore a simple white bodice with long sleeves and a green skirt, paired with an apron.

I turned my gaze to the man she'd called Dumah, and my heart threatened to pound right out of my chest.

He was shorter than he'd been as a vampire, and his eyes were a rather unremarkable shade of brown, but that man was _unmistakably _the Dumah I'd known. He wore intricate purple armor.

I couldn't stop looking at him. The long nose, square jaw, the way his eyes were set almost too closely together...there was no mistaking him for anyone else.

His eyes locked with mine. He blanched and opened his mouth to say something.

The other man in the room nudged Dumah and tilted his head toward Uli. I didn't understand? Were Dumah and Uli-

Then I recognized that other man.

_Rahab. _

Rahab wore teal armor with a seahorse motif on it. His long, black hair was pulled back into a braid he'd draped over his shoulder. When he noticed me staring at him, he bowed low, then took my hand and kissed it.

"Your servant, dear lady. My name is Rahab." His green eyes twinkled with amusement.

Uli rolled her eyes. "Pay him no mind." She frowned and tossed her head to get a few errant strands of black hair out of her face. "You look as though you've just seen a ghost." She shook her head. "Forgive me. I should have introduced everyone. My name is Uli," here she gestured toward Rahab, "And this would-be charmer is Inquisitor Rahab, and that," she gestured toward Dumah, "Is my Bonded, Inquisitor Dumah. What's your name?"

_Bonded? What? _

Nothing was making sense.

"It's nothing," I said. "It's...the fever. That's all." I took a deep breath and looked from Dumah to Rahab, then at Uli. "I...what happened to me?"

Rahab shrugged.

"At least tell us your name," he said.

_Right. _"Amara. My name is Amara."

Uli smiled warmly. "An unusual name. Pretty."

"What happened to me?" I repeated.

Dumah and Rahab glanced at each other.

"We found you near our camp in the mountains," Rahab said. "You were attacked by the Audron. It's a wonder he didn't kill you."

"I don't understand." The Audron? Who or what was that? Was that why my neck hurt?

Dumah folded his arms across his chest. "It appears that you became lost in the mountains. At some point, the vampire Janos Audron attacked you, and you fainted."

I'd had strange dreams while I was unconscious. Dreams of someone poking through my memories...was that the Janos Audron they were talking about?

_They don't need to know._

Uli tilted her head to the side ever so slightly. "You were dressed strangely. It didn't look like you were suited for travel..."

I bit my lip and looked around the room. What could I say? How much of the truth could I tell? They couldn't know that I was from another world. They couldn't know that Dumah and Rahab would become vampires. They couldn't know that I had once been in love with Dumah, that I had come to Nosgoth once before.

"I escaped from a vampire," I said. That was easy. It wasn't a lie, either. "I didn't have time to get other clothes."

Uli's expression took on a faraway look. "You must be from some distant country. From across the Great Southern Sea, perhaps."

I nodded. "Yes. From across the sea." I tried my best to smile.

Uli's face lit up. "Can you tell me more about it?"

"Let her rest, Uli." Dumah rested a hand on Uli's shoulder, and my heart sank. I don't know why. It was totally ridiculous to expect that things would be the same here. Dumah was a mortal man, here, with a life in place. It was stupid to think he'd rearrange things just because I had arrived.

"Uh, so, I see that Dumah and Rahab are wearing armor. Are they knights?" It was a stupid question, and I knew it.

Rahab's eyes widened almost comically. Dumah scowled.

_Shit. I should have kept my mouth shut. _

Uli turned to Dumah. "If she's foreign, she may not know..."

Rahab bowed. "We are Sarafan Priests. The Circle of Nine themselves has ordered us to cleanse Nosgoth of its vampire plague."

My head reeled. So Kain's sons had been vampire killers as humans. Was Kain aware of the irony there? I took a deep breath and blinked a few times. Something Rahab said had jogged my memory. I'd read a journal just before I escaped from Kain's stronghold. Something about Sarafan, and Janos Audron, and the Circle of Nine. It dawned on me that I could be as many as two thousand years in the past. What was it that voice had said to me?

"It will deliver you in time." My voice was barely above a whisper, so soft I could hardly hear it. Uli, Dumah, and Rahab seemed to have heard me, though.

"Is something the matter?" Uli asked.

"I heard somewhere that a vampire..." I swallowed the lump that had started to form in my throat, "that a vampire killed several members of the Circle. Is that true?"

The eyes of everyone in the room fell on me. I shrank back against my pillow and bit my lip.

_Shit. Everything I've done so far has been a huge mistake. At least I know that I'm somewhere in time **before **the vampire slaughters the Circle._

Dumah was the first to speak. He took a step away from my bed and shook his head. "The Audron did something to her. Left her quite mad."

Rahab gestured toward the necklace I was wearing. The necklace that Dumah's future, vampire self had given me. "Perhaps the necklace prevented him from draining her, and that is what left her mad. I've heard that blood loss causes such things."

Dumah took a step toward the door. "At any rate, Inquisitor Raziel and Inquisitor Turel requested that we check on her, and now that she's awake, I'll fetch them."

My heart started pounding. I didn't like the sound of these Inquisitors.

"Why?" I blurted it out before I knew what I was saying.

Rahab shook his head. "Because it is unusual to find anyone traveling at this time of year, and it is especially unusual to find a delicate lady dressed in foreign clothes traveling in the mountains. We must ascertain that you were not set there as a trap by the Audron."

"Why didn't you just kill me?" I snapped.

Rahab looked taken aback. "Our Code requires that we aid humans in need. You appear to be human, and you were most certainly in need."

"I see."

Rahab managed a half-smile. "Don't worry. If you have told us the truth, you will not be in any danger."


	5. V

Dumah returned, bringing two men with him. One, I recognized immediately as Raziel. He wore the most intricate armor of all. His expression was stern. His hair was shorter now than it had been when he was a vampire. Curious.

The other man looked older than all of the higher-ranking Sarafan I'd seen so far. Crows' feet had etched themselves into the corners of his eyes, his cheekbones were high and his cheeks hollow. He frowned even more heavily than Raziel did. His long black hair was slicked back, and pulled into a tight ponytail that served to make him look even more severe. His armor was green.

_He must be the one Dumah called Turel._

"So, this is the girl in question," Turel said. I didn't like his tone. He sounded as though he'd made up his mind about killing me already. "Tell us what happened."

My heart started pounding. He couldn't know the whole truth. I had to stall. "I don't remember everything."

His eyes narrowed. "Then tell us what you _do _remember."

_Lie like a dog._

I took a deep breath. "I was expecting a visitor at my home. Someone knocked. I answered. I don't remember what happened. When I woke up, I was in a strange castle." My eyes darted back and forth between Raziel and Turel. Neither of their expressions had changed.

"How did you escape?" Raziel asked.

"Through a window. I made a rope from the sheets on my bed and climbed down." There was no need to tell him about the weird time-travel.

"How long did you travel?" Turel still sounded skeptical.

"Days."

"Did you ever see the vampire who had taken you?" Raziel asked me. His tone was gentler, but still firm.

I shook my head. "Not clearly, no." That was true. I hadn't _actually _seen Kain take me. Really, I had no proof it was him at all, except for what those two vampire worshippers in his keep had said.

Raziel turned to Rahab. "It was your unit that found her, correct?"

Rahab nodded. "That is correct. The Audron had just torn himself away from her throat when we found her."

Turel never took his eyes off of me. "What I want to know is why a vampire would take an interest in a slip of a girl like this. Look at her. Skin and bones. She could pass for an unusually pretty boy."

Uli frowned and pushed her way toward my bed. "With all due respect, Inquisitor Turel, she could very well be a foreign nobleman's wife. Perhaps the vampire took her as ransom. She said she was from across the Sea. Look at the pendant she's wearing. That's a real amethyst."

Turel wheeled around and shoved Uli away. She fell backwards, into the dresser that was against the wall. I shrank back into my pillows and pulled the blanket up. This Turel was dangerous. Maybe moreso than Kain, even. Dumah rushed over to Uli's side and took her into his arms, sending a withering glare in Turel's direction.

"Treat my Blade-bride with some respect," he snarled.

Turel scowled. "Teach your Blade-bride to speak only when she is spoken to." He half-smiled at Uli, a cold, condescending smile that sent chills down my spine.

Dumah gritted his teeth. He seemed to be making every effort to not lunge at Turel.

"Turel." Raziel's tone was clipped. "Enough." He returned his attention to me. "So you come from across the Sea?"

I nodded. "From a country called California." Might as well just go with it.

"That isn't on any of our maps," Turel interjected.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but remembered what had happened when Uli had spoken without being spoken to and shrank away from Turel instead.

"There are many places our cartographers have never seen." Rahab was the one who piped up this time. He shrugged. "Regardless, where she is from is not important. Why that vampire took her isn't even important here. There are two matters of importance here. Why did the Audron leave her alive, and is her presence among us a trap set by him?"

Turel snorted and shook his head. "I believe you've been bewitched, Brother Rahab."

"No, I agree with Rahab," Raziel said. He looked back down at me. "Why did the Audron spare you?"

_Oh shit. What am I going to say here? What could I possibly say? _"My necklace," I said lamely. "It was enchanted." Totally stupid, but it was the only thing I could think of. It wasn't a lie, anyway. There had been an enchantment on the necklace, but with the vampire Dumah being dead, it wouldn't work, now.

Raziel nodded. "Go on."

"It was enchanted," I said, "And I guess when th-the Audron attacked me, it kept him from completely draining me." I sighed deeply. "But the enchantment's worn out, now. I don't think it would work again."

Rahab looked over at Turel and grinned. "So there you have it."

Raziel ignored him. "I'm concerned, though. You said you'd heard rumors of a vampire slaughtering the Circle? Where did you hear that?"

"F-from another woman in that vampire's castle. Maybe he told her that to break her spirit." One wrong move, one wrong word, and I was dead.

Turel folded his arms across his chest. "I think she should be executed at once. Who knows if she's telling the truth or not?"

"I disagree," Raziel said. Turel scowled, but Raziel continued. "I believe that she should be taken to the Stronghold and questioned by an adept Mentalist. I'm not entirely sure I believe her, but I'm not convinced that she is lying, either. Perhaps I will even arrange for the Soothsayer to do the questioning."

Turel shook his head. "The Soothsayer has _far _more important things to worry about than-"

"Be silent, Turel." There was no mistaking the finality in Raziel's tone. "She will be questioned by a Mentalist, and, if possible, the Soothsayer himself. Until such time as the snows melt and we can return to the Stronghold, she will remain here."

"I don't want her in the jail," Turel said. "I want eyes on her at all times." He narrowed his eyes. Clearly, he was convinced that I was some kind of witch who had put a spell on everyone in the room, save for him.

"Then Rahab and Dumah shall be responsible for her," Raziel said. "It was their units who found her, after all."

Dumah shook his head. "Brother Raziel, with the utmost respect, I have quite enough to deal with," he gestured toward Uli's belly, "without also taking care of a sick woman who may or may not be a witch or magicked by the Audron."

Raziel nodded sagely. "That is a good point. She will be your solely your responsibility, then, Rahab."

Rahab stood straight up and nodded. "Understood, Brother Raziel."

"You are to keep eyes on her at _all _times," Turel hissed. "Do you understand? She is _never _to be unaccompanied, not even for an instant."

Turel frightened me far, far more than any of the other Sarafan I had met had. I was grateful to Raziel for assigning Rahab to be my guard, and not Turel.

Turel turned toward me as though he'd heard my thoughts. I quickly looked down at my knees, away from him. He leaned in close to me, so close I could feel his hot breath on my cheek.

"You're right to fear me, girl. Should your questioning turn up anything that would indicate you lied to us, I'll kill you myself."

I kept my gaze downward. I didn't dare look at him. I didn't dare say a word to him. If I at least acted quiet and submissive, maybe he would leave me alone. Or at least be less scary.

"Brother Turel. There is no need to threaten or intimidate her," Rahab said.

"I outrank you, and I'll do as I see fit," Turel snapped.

"_I _outrank _you,_" Raziel said, "And this matter is settled. Rahab, I trust that you will not let this girl get in the way of your duties."

Rahab bristled. "You know me better than that!"

Raziel almost smiled. "It is because I know you that I am asking."

"I will not be distracted," Rahab said.

Raziel nodded. "Very well."

He turned and left the room. After a few long, uncomfortable moments, Turel followed. Rahab closed the door behind them and almost smiled.

"See? That wasn't any trouble at all!"


End file.
